


Safety Nets and Changing Tides

by SoulOfAFangirl684



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Coming Out, F/F, First Kiss, Friendship, I'll figure that one out later, Internalized Homophobia, It's Pokemon, It's meant to be kind of wholesome, It's really very lighthearted though, Jellowshipping - Freeform, Light Angst, is apparently what this ship is called, they're just kids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23742310
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulOfAFangirl684/pseuds/SoulOfAFangirl684
Summary: There were not many things Mallow was insecure about. Lana was determined to put her mind at ease over this particular thing.
Relationships: Lilie | Lillie/Mao | Mallow (Pokemon), Mao | Mallow & Suiren | Lana
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	Safety Nets and Changing Tides

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so I don’t want to say my inspiration for this came entirely from that, like, 3-second Revolutionary Girl Utena reference they make in the third season, but… well… It did get me thinking. And looking back, Mallow and Lillie do have a lot of cute moments leading up to it. I know they’re all supportive of Lillie, but Mallow especially so, it feels. But also… I don’t write cute nearly as well as I write angst. So here we are.

Lana never felt more at home than when she was in the water. She’d grown up not just on the ocean—helping her dad out with his fishing jobs—but in it as well. It was a place to live and a place to play and a place to _be_. She’d floated in the waves long enough to approximate the time based on when the tides had last changed. Her mother lead Pokemon water aerobics classes on the weekends. And her twin sisters had been able to swim for as long as they’d been able to walk. She was pretty sure it was something just encoded into her DNA.

She tried to center herself with these memories now, sinking into the water in her best friend’s bathtub. It was a struggle, though. There was too much on her mind, and this particular body of water lacked life. There was no natural movement to sway along to and lose herself in. Even if she closed her eyes and submerged herself completely, she was still keenly aware of the walls of the bathtub just inches away on all sides, caging her in.

Lana glanced at the door, which she’d left not only unlocked but ajar as well. Her clothes had been stacked neatly on the counter beside the sink. These actions were meant to give this setting a casual feel. But her attempts at normalcy were so forced that it all just _looked_ stiff.

She sighed and brought her fingers up to her lips. Was she imagining they were tingling?

“…Lana?” Mallow’s voice had never sounded so small and timid. Lana could imagine her friend pressed up against the wall behind the door, her long limbs curled up close to her body. “I’m so sorry.”

Lana shook her head, even though Mallow couldn’t see her. “It’s okay.”

Mallow sniffed miserably. “I’m serious.”

“So am I.” There was a moment of silence. And then another. It made her heart sink a little to realize Mallow was probably waiting for her to reveal she was just joking.

It had been a pretty normal night until recently. Mallow’s dad was away on an ingredients trip—something about a mountain flower that only bloomed for a few weeks out of the year that Lana hadn’t caught all the details about, if she was being totally honest. She’d been able to tell her friend was pretty bummed about not getting to go along and had offered to stay over, just so she wouldn’t have to spend the night alone.

(Well, okay, it had been as much for her own sake. The twins’ birthday was coming up, and they were even more excitable than usual. Lana would swear their feet weren’t even touching the ground these days.)

Offering to keep her friend company had been a no-brainer. Lana and Mallow had done practically everything together since meeting in the forest all those years ago. She loved all of their friends, of course, but she had to admit that Mallow held a special place in her heart. She was the one Lana would have sworn she knew inside and out. So it was an understatement of Wailord proportions to say she was surprised at the turn the night had taken.

The restaurant was closed for the two days her dad would be away, freeing Mallow from her usual after-school responsibilities. So the girls had gone for malasadas at the green-haired girl’s favorite competitor. Lana had listened with a small smile as Mallow had cheerfully ranked the other restaurants in the area without a hint of jealousy or animosity. Not that she would have expected it. There wasn’t much her friend was insecure about.

Their lazy afternoon had turned into an impressively productive evening. It was research paper time of the semester. And while they’d moved from the research aspect of the assignment (which was much more fun) into the actual writing of the papers… Well, at least Professor Kukui let them choose their own topics with virtually no restrictions.

“That’s it,” Lana had groaned long after the sun had set. She let her pen fall from her fingers and made no effort to retrieve it when it went rolling away across Mallow’s bedroom floor. “I can’t write another word.”

“Agreed,” Mallow had said with a grin, purposefully relaxing her hand to let her pen drop to the floor as well. She glanced briefly towards the corner of her room, where their Pokemon partners had collapsed against her beanbag chair and hour earlier, tired from a long day of play. “But hey, at least now we shouldn’t have to worry about getting it done in time. I’d say mine should only need another paragraph or two to wrap it up.”

“Yeah, same here.” Lana paused long enough for a playful smirk to form on her face. “Most likely to write it all the night before. Go!”

“Ash!” they chorused together, giggling a little.

“Though sometimes Kiawe’s just as bad,” Lana added.

“Kiawe’s got a lot to do at home, though,” Mallow countered generously. “Most likely to already have it done?”

“Lillie,” they answered, together again.

“Sophocles would probably be done already, too, if he didn’t put so much detail into everything.”

Lana hummed in agreement. “I just need to get to the page requirement. That’s good enough for me.”

The girls lapsed into silence, leaning back against Mallow’s bed. They yawned in unison and then chuckled again at the coincidence. The house was exceptionally quiet, that silence creating the sort of buzz in her ears that Lana could never tell if she was imagining or not. Their heads had lolled in each other’s direction ever so slightly. She was just thinking how she could fall asleep right there… when Mallow’s head dipped again, and suddenly their lips were touching.

She didn’t even recognize it to be an intentional _kiss_ at first; that’s how light the sensation was. But the moment went on, Mallow adding just enough pressure to make it impossible to ignore or misconstrue. The other girl’s eyes were closed, nothing else in the room moved, and Lana’s thoughts felt like they were very far away…

And then Mallow’s eyes flew open. She jerked away very suddenly, and the haze was abruptly cleared. The green-haired girl clapped a hand over her mouth so that all Lana could see were her wide, horrified eyes and her cheeks getting redder by the second. Her own eyes felt very wide, and the pace of her thoughts had sped up to a sprint, ricocheting off each other in her brain until none of them were coherent anymore.

Their previous moment had been like a dream. Hazy and surreal with neither of them entirely present. This one felt like they were holding their breath, waiting for something to crash through the renewed silence.

That something was Lana rising abruptly to her feet. She could tell her face had gotten a little pinker too, and her eyes had yet to shrink back down to their normal size. Ultimately, she stammered, “Um, it’s getting late! I should go take my bath!” and rushed off to do so, as she’d already been planning before losing track of time with their schoolwork.

And so here they sat now, the desired normalcy still not quite within reach.

“I swear I was half-asleep,” Mallow continued.

“I know.” But the words had begun to pour out of her friend and couldn’t be stopped.

“I never would have done it if I wasn’t so tired! It was like… I couldn’t even tell if it was really happening for a minute. Like it was just another dream…”

“Is it something you dream about a lot?” she asked curiously.

“What, my first kiss?”

“Kissing another girl,” she clarified softly. Lana found a calmness _had_ started to settle around her. She pulled her own knees up to mirror the way she envisioned her best friend to be sitting right now, simply thoughtful.

Mallow’s short, responding laugh sounded resigned. “They’ve kind of always gone hand-in-hand.”

“Oh. I just wondered.”

Silence fell yet again. Lana swirled one hand around in the bathwater, breaking it with the familiarly pleasant swishy, splashing noises. She continued until Mallow spoke up again, that quiver back in her voice. “Are you mad at me?”

“No.” And she wasn’t. Maybe a little confused still, but that was all. “What for?”

“You know… stealing your first kiss? It’s kinda a big deal to most people.”

“Of course not. I never said it was _my_ first kiss.”

“…Wait, what?! Who?! When?!” She’d managed to shock Mallow out of her gloom. The other girl shot to her feet and flung the door the rest of the way open. There was an incredulous look on her face. “Why didn’t you tell me—?!" Until she saw the grin on Lana’s face.

“Kidding!”

It took an extra second for the joke to land, but when it did, it was like the girls both deflated. Lana’s legs slid down to lie flat again, pointing her toes as her head rested back against the bathtub wall. Mallow sank back against the sink, her elbows supporting most of her weight. They both giggled for a few seconds, before Mallow abruptly averted her eyes, as if she’d just remembered something—that maybe things were supposed to be different now. “Oh, sorry…”

Lana rolled her eyes—as if there was any part of her that her best friend had not seen over the years—but she doubted the taller girl saw it. When she made to retreat back out into the hallway, Lana called, “Can you bring me a towel? I forgot to grab one.”

“Yeah, sure.” Mallow glanced back, very briefly, with a smaller smile that somehow communicated all the things neither girl had found the words to say up to this point.

**…………**

Later… when Lana’s hair had dried and the rest of the tension had melted away and they were finally ready to go to sleep… they unearthed a pair of sleeping bags out of Mallow’s closet and laid them out under the stars. It was a beautiful night, and they’d be woken by a beautiful sunrise… She couldn’t ask for much more.

“It’s so ingrained…” Mallow murmured into the silence.

“What is?” Lana asked.

“At this point in the night… I feel like we should be talking about boys.” The short laugh that followed this was veering a bit too close to her earlier despondency for Lana’s liking.

Her shrug was a little awkward, encased in her sleeping bag. “Well, there’s no one I like. What about you? Any girls I should know about?”

“W-what?! No, of course not!”

Lana smiled in the darkness at the hurried spluttering. Mallow never had been a very good liar. It was a wonder that she’d managed to keep her secret as long as she had. But she wouldn’t push her for gossip just now. It had been a long night.

**…………**

The next day was bright and sunny. The bell above the Pokemon school rang out clearly across the grounds. This should have signified the start of class, but one crucial element was missing.

“It’s weird for Professor Kukui to be late,” Kiawe commented.

“Was he still home when you left the house, Ash?” Sophocles asked.

“He usually leaves before you do, right?” Mallow added in before he could answer.

This usual clamor of a class full of children was typical and comfortable. No one was particularly bothered by being interrupted.

“He left on time,” Ash answered. “But Professor Burnet forgot her lunch. He said he was gonna try and catch up with her in town before she got on the boat to Aether Paradise.”

“Oh, yes! My mother said she’d be working with Professor Burnet today,” Lillie chimed in.

“Well, I’m sure Munchlax will be glad he went to the trouble!” said Mallow.

“I don’t know…” Kiawe said. “I doubt Professor Burnet would want him to be late to his classes…”

“He’s been a little off ever since he got married,” Sophocles commented sagely. “Love does strange things to people.”

Ash blinked, glancing between the two other boys, not quite on the same page. “You think so? They both just seem really happy to me.”

“Well, _I_ think it’s sweet!” said Mallow.

Lillie, a little more concerned about their academics, clasped her hands in front of her chest, frowning worriedly. “I’m sure he’ll be able to focus again soon… It’s still just so new.”

Kiawe shrugged and sank back into his desk chair. They were all slowly backing out of their standing huddle to take their usual places, but they all turned their chairs to face each other still. “It’s just weird to me. I mean, Professor Kukui’s a cool guy and all, but can you imagine _marrying_ him?”

They all tittered a little at the thought, so ridiculous was the idea. But then Sophocles got a mischievous smile on his face. “Yeah, but you’re not exactly the one he’d be asking, right?” He turned to Lillie. “What about you? Would _you_ marry Professor Kukui?”

“What?!” Her face flushed bright red. “P-Professor Kukui?! I mean, I never—!" 

Mallow frowned. “Leave her alone, Sophocles. It’s just a dumb joke, Lillie—”

But Lana matched his smile before the other girl could successfully put this train of thought to rest. “What about Professor Burnet? Would you marry _her_?”

She hadn’t thought Lillie’s face could get any redder. She was proven wrong a second later.

Ash cocked his head to the side, looking confused. “What? But Lillie and Professor Burnet are both—”

“Don’t worry about that part, Ash!” Kiawe cut him off a little hastily, and Lana noted in amusement that his cheeks had darkened a bit at this line of questioning also.

Mallow narrowed her eyes at her, but Lana pretended not to notice. The spotlight as still on Lillie, and she managed to compose herself enough to clear her throat and respond with her usual primness. “W-while I’ve never thought of either of the professors in a romantic way… I’m sure either one of them would be a lovely spouse.”

There was a moment of silence… before they all started giggling again. The question was just so ridiculous after all. This was when Professor Kukui rushed through the door, ruffled and out of breath. “Hey, guys, sorry I’m late… What’s so funny?”

They all waved him off, their jumbled excuses flowing over each other until none of them were coherent. Their easygoing teacher let it go without too much second thought, and the lesson commenced. It morphed into a fairly normal day… But Lana caught a few looks Mallow sent her way over the course of the lecture. For a while, she was worried she’d maybe gone a step too far… But one of those times, she saw a small smile—perhaps of gratitude—and her mind was set at ease.

**…………**

Lana was not privy to all the aspects of her best friend’s life. She and Mallow didn’t discuss any of this again. To be honest, Lana wasn’t really sure what to say. She didn’t want to risk upsetting her friend again. She just hoped something reassuring had come from their conversation with their friends that morning.

And she soon had other suspicions confirmed as well.

The presentations for their research papers went well all around, regardless of questions of preparation. And Professor Kukui surprised them all when the last one was through with the reveal that the next few weeks would be spent studying the topics they’d chosen in more detail.

They’d drawn lots to decide the order, and Lana had come up second. So after spending one week trudging up and down Wela Volcano, trying to see if fire-type attacks really were stronger close to the fiery peak, they boarded a boat and set out across the waves. Far out to sea, there was this tiny island with a herd of Popplio. Only Popplio. For some reason, once they evolved, the Pokemon would move off the island and find other herds elsewhere.

Lana had done extensive research for her report and had her theories for why this was—size was a big factor—but she hadn’t gotten out to actually see the island herself and was ecstatic to have the chance.

But it was a long, rough journey. She was thankful that most of her friends seemed immune to seasickness. (Although Professor Kukui had gone below deck to check on Sophocles.) Ash and Kiawe were at the back of the boat, cheering on a pair of playful Mantine simultaneously racing each other and trying to keep up with their boat. The joy this sight brought Lana bubbled up within her until she wanted to jump overboard and join them… but she restrained herself.

She wandered up to the bow where she found her other two friends. The boat jumped on a big wave, and it threw the two girls stumbling together. Lillie’s hat flew off on the breeze, but Mallow shot forward and grabbed it, Lillie wrapping her arms around the green-haired girl’s waist to keep her from falling overboard. The two’s giggles easily reached Lana’s ears, even over the roar of the engine and the rush of the wind. It was another bubbly scene. But for some reason, Lana didn’t move forward to join them.

She continued to watch as the girls didn’t move away after the initial stumble. They stayed pressed up together. Lillie briefly rested her head against Mallow’s shoulder. Mallow shifted just enough to wrap her own arms around the blonde’s body as well.

Lana pressed herself a little more closely to the wall of the boat’s upper cabin, letting them have their quiet moment. Her smile was firmly in place as she crept slowly backwards. She would join the boys and place her own bets on the Mantine. And perhaps extend the moment these two were having, if only by a few more minutes.

**Author's Note:**

> It did end up being a little more lighthearted than I’d pictured. It is Pokemon… I’ll save the really dark stuff for my other fandoms.


End file.
